The Turkey government apparently has more backbone than American politicians in calling out China. It will be interesting to see if China forces Turkey to take back it's criticism. Or will the West urge Turkey to play down the matter. As with the Tibetans, the world does not give a damn about the Chinese persecution of the Uighurs.
China has demanded that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan retract his accusation that Beijing practised genocide against ethnic Uighurs.
Mr Erdogan made the claim after riots in the Uighur heartland of Xinjiang during which 184 people were killed.
Separately, more than 100 Chinese writers and intellectuals have signed a letter calling for the release of Ilham Tohti, an outspoken Uighur economist.
Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, is under heavy police and military control.
China's rejection of Mr Erdogan's remarks came in an editorial headlined "Don't twist facts" in the English-language newspaper China Daily.
It said the fact that 137 of the 184 victims were Han Chinese "speaks volumes for the nature of the event".
The newspaper urged Mr Erdogan to "take back his remarks... which constitute interference in China's internal affairs", describing his genocide comments as "irresponsible and groundless."
Mr Erdogan made the controversial comments last Friday, telling NTV television: "The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There's no point in interpreting this otherwise."
He had called on Chinese authorities to intervene to prevent more deaths.
The persecution continues:
Heavily armed security forces were out in force in China's volatile Urumqi on Tuesday close to where police shot dead two Muslim Uighurs who state media said were calling for jihad.
Large groups of police armed with semi-automatic weapons and batons were deployed close to the scene of Monday's violence, where Chinese authorities said police shot and killed two Uighur "lawbreakers" and wounded another.
The shootings showed the capital of the northwest Xinjiang region remained a powder keg more than a week after ethnic unrest on July 5 left at least 184 people dead, despite an ongoing security clampdown.
The Tibetans are still alive:
Nepalese police detained 15 Tibetans who were demonstrating against China in front of a U.N. office outside Kathmandu on Tuesday, a police official said.
Superintendent Kedar Mansingh Bhandari, head of Lalitpur police, said the Tibetans were detained while chanting anti-China slogans in front of the U.N. building in Lalitpur.
Bhandari also accused the Tibetan demonstrators of obstructing traffic. "We are discussing what action they will face," he said.
The Nepalese government has authorized the police to charge people who obstruct traffic under the Public Offense Act in a bid to check the almost-daily traffic obstructions in Kathmandu by groups making various demands.
Those charged under the public offense law face imprisonment of up to six months.
Tibetans in Nepal have staged anti-China protests since March 10 last year when China crushed protests in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
No comments:
Post a Comment